12 Common Mistakes That Successful People Never Make

“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” –Arthur Ashe

You wake up early every morning, reach your office before the others, finish your assigned tasks on time, and even the boss seems to be highly content with your efforts. Promotion seems within your grasp. The day arrives on which a singular announcement will propel you from your crammed up cabin to a room of your own. However, when the final verdict is revealed, you find yourself among the crowd, which is clapping, for one of your colleagues; your attempts all seemed to have been in vain, as they were met with no more than a fruitless outcome. The feelings of anger, desperation, and hopelessness engulf you, and you seem to lose hold of your focus and motivation.

Undoubtedly, many of us have experienced something similar in our lives. Ever wondered why failure is persistently holding you a prisoner away from the light of success? The answer is simple. It lies in the common mistakes we partake in almost daily. To turn this around, you need to inculcate these values that successful people endorse ASAP!

1.    Be strong in the face of abuse and keep all doubts at bay.

A considerable achievement that you might secure may be closely followed by degrading remarks and hostile behavior at the hands of your colleagues. This is aimed to lower your self-confidence and make you question your potential. However, successful people pay no heed to such comments; they do not allow others to take charge of the reigns of their emotions and simply brush such actions off.

2.    They value time as if it were gold.

A common mistake that most of us exhibit is that we repeatedly delay the process of undertaking the tasks we need to perform, that is, we indulge in unnecessary procrastination. This burdens us with ever-increasing psychological stress, stalls our creativity and reduces the possibility for us to benefit from new challenging situations. What follows next is that it simply pushes our success in the opposite direction to where it was required. Make sure to do what you have to today; start with baby steps but start now!

3.    They don’t expect to receive massive success overnight.

Successful people avoid the common mistakes of aiming for things to miraculously favor their circumstances or of setting unattainable goals for themselves. Instead, they proceed with a defined set of ideas which would facilitate to construct a material form of their ambitions, repeatedly enhance and build these up and eventually land at the desired amount of success.

4.    They don’t equate all things regarding their importance.

We have all heard of the power of the 80/20 rule. Simply put, it refers to how 20% of your daily activities account for 80% of your overall meaningful outcomes. When you’re engaging in strategic planning, you will come to discover how two of the tasks you intend to perform happen to be more substantial than the rest of the eight all put together! If you keep on pursuing the worthless tasks rather than focusing on the crucial ones, you will deprive yourself of actualizing your full potential.

5.    They ensure to make their physical fitness a priority.

Successful people avoid the common mistake of letting their bodies experience a burnout; they do not exhaust themselves to the point, which might end up terminating their productivity. Physical fitness and success go hand in hand. Thus, such people never let their energy levels get compromised. Doing so not only makes them more able to meet their goals, but it also helps them stay happy and satisfied in the end.

6.    They embrace new experiences with open arms.

Often time, we come across an opportunity to fashion a new skill or upgrade the pre-existing ones. In addition, another common mistake either is to let them slide by thinking that they are invaluable for our planned endeavors or are too basic for us to give any reasonable consideration. If one thing is true, successful people never function this way. They are ever ready to participate in all activities that will allow them to grow and broaden their mindsets.

 

7.    They do not run after amorphous goals.

Successful people have measurable, defined and structured goals. Chasing vague goals can put a strong hindrance in the path of your success and tend to be implausible. Make sure that you carefully list down all your aspirations and utilizing the 80/20 rule, prioritize to make them a reality.

8.    They are responsible for their acts.

Humans have not been designed to display perfection and are prone to mistakes. What’s necessary is that in the event of a failure, rather than dismissing the idea of all further action and effort, one should try to extract a valuable lesson from the situation. Advance yourself to identify a silver lining and figure out the causes behind your blunder. These will educate you to avoid it in the future and maximize chances of your success.

9.    They display confidence.

A major part of this is to ensure that you do not make the common mistake of avoiding eye contact. A well-maintained eye contact during a conversation compliments your intelligence, confidence, strong personality and your ability to lead and excel. A symbol indicates your interest. Without doing so, your words will not leave any desired impact and will highlight your low confidence and self-esteem. Therefore, act confident if you wish to get to the top.

10.    They don’t rate their success by comparing it with others.

If you want to spare yourself the unwanted frustration, anxiety, and anger, then do not compare your wins and losses with others. Successful people are never concerned with the triumphs of those around them; instead, they try to invest all their efforts in achieving what they can within a given set of circumstances and try to make the best out of all situations. It not only gives their self-esteem a boost but positively enhances their productivity and takes them closer to being more and more successful.

11.    They understand the value of each cent earned.

Successful people don’t overspend and mange their financial assets with utter consideration. They inculcate the value of living on less than what they earn by making ‘tomorrow’ a priority of their ‘today.’ They realize that it is important to save for their future to be ready for all ups and downs that it might present. Additionally, they spend effectively. They don’t opt for a cheap option that won’t even last them a day but tend to be rather rational in this regard. They are willing to go for an expensive alternative if it promises reliability and durability.

12.    They leave no room for any toxic relationships.

Your success is closely tied with the people you interact with on a daily basis. Jim Rohn declares that all humans tend to be an intermediate version of the five people that they mostly engage with. Whist positive relationships hold the power to propel you towards unimaginable heights of success and bring the best out in you by enhancing your motivation and confidence, the negative relations can achieve the very opposite effect.

These negative relations can undermine your potential, drag you down and contribute to your unproductiveness. Avoid this common mistake at all costs and reasonably identify both kinds of relationships in your life. Respectfully eradicate the negative ones so your progress and success remains unharmed.

Some of these points would have probably had you nodding in agreement. You might have actually pin pointed several factors that have been stunting your success and growth. Well, it’s never too late. Now that you are more ready than ever, start incorporating these points in your daily life so that the next time a promotion announcement is made, it offers you good riddance from that tiny, suffocating cabin!